TheoTrek — A Journey with God in Discipleship
Turning Tables
Isaiah 14:12-21; Luke 6:17-26; 1st Peter 2:11-21
The Gospel message is pre-disposed to turning the tables on us, taking us unawares. Even so, it would seem that its message is too old and too well-know to surprise us anymore. Is this because we know the message so well, or perhaps because we have learned so well how to just get along without allowing it to interfere with our day-to-day living?
The Beatitudes are perhaps the most recognized of Jesus’ words. Blessed are the poor, hungry, weeping, and hated, for God will turn the tables on their fortunes. Woe to those who are wealthy, comforted, fed, laughing, and well-regarded, for they have already enjoyed their reward. The words sound very familiar, but somehow we do not allow them to apply to our lives. Jesus can’t have meant them for us. Jesus must have meant them only to some other category of people in some other time and place. After all, we are today’s faithful disciples, and these words must surely not apply to our lives!
Why should we be poor, deprived, teary-eyed, and hated by others because of our faith? If the gospel is a message of release for the oppressed, should it not likewise allow the redeemed to enjoy the life of those having overcome oppression, poverty, hunger, and suffering? It is supposed to be God’s desire to transform a ragged, poor, needy population into a wealthy, healthy, empowered society. That is what all the dreams for Messiah were all about. The whole idea of messianic intervention was to turn the tables on the world, such that God’s chosen people might rise to the top and enjoy God’s blessings in peace and luxury.
Why do Jesus’ words turn our longing for the good, positive blessings of God on its head? Jesus was supposed to preach release to the captives, sight to the blind, and reversal of fortunes for the poor and needy. Now it seems that God’s whole plan was to redefine success as just getting by in the oppressive world order. We are called to await some future reality of reversal in our fortunes. There seems no hope for those who receive blessing in this present life. That hardly sounds like blessing at all.
Isaiah’s words sound much more to the point of the hope anticipated in Messiah’s coming. His words seem much more akin to what we would like to hear Jesus saying. “How the evil king of Babylon has fallen from his position of power! In his arrogance, he was cast aside by the Almighty in order that we might laugh at his misfortune, while rejoicing in gaining power with his downfall. Now we can gloat over Babylon as Babylon gloated over us!” Isaiah’s words were a prophetic taunting at the anticipated downfall of Babylon. They were words of hope in divine reversal. They incorporated the desire to gain the blessings of power and wealth at the expense of others.
Isaiah goes on to speak of the reversal in judgment over Assyria, Edom, Egypt, and Tyre. He also speaks of God’s judgment on the unfaithful of Israel. He speaks of restoration, yet maybe not quite in the terms the people wanted to hear. First of all, they had to accept the upcoming exile. They were not to rely on help from sources such as Egypt, but rather accept the ways and dealings of Yahweh without reservation. They were to bow to captivity and exile as a means of God’s provision.
The idea did not set well. The people did not want less than a future of power and prominence. They had their eyes set on prosperity, not humble obedience to God. They felt it was God’s responsibility to keep them prosperous, free from foreign domination, and victorious in any battle that might come their way. They were supposed to be the pampered people of Yahweh amid a world of oppression, injustice, and distress. What was the point of being God’s chosen nation, if not to enjoy the blessings of provision and protection from their enemies?
After the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Jews were scattered in what was called the Diaspora. Peter wrote the Jewish believers scattered along with the rest of the population. Kicked out of their homeland, the temple destroyed, they looked for some kind of restoration from God. Peter’s words do not sound quite as encouraging as they would have liked. They dreamed of being ushered back to a restored Israel. They had dreamed of Jesus somehow setting things right, even though he had refused the expected messianic role. Now they were scattered and left with no symbol of a national identity. The Empire had turned against the Jews. The Jews had turned against the believers among them.
Peter’s words just don’t sound very encouraging. He mentions a day of God’s visitation, but in the meantime he calls on the believers to live as though the oppression they face is a blessing. They are to bow to the authorities, regardless of the way they may be treated. They are to serve their masters, even though they are cruel, merciless, and unjust. They are to live in harsh conditions as if suffering were to be enjoyed and highly prized. Peter makes it sound as though suffering for doing good is just the best thing one could dream of experiencing!
Peter holds out Jesus’ example of suffering as though we should all desire to follow through with the very same experience of suffering unjustly. Did he have some kind of martyrdom complex? We can see how his words might apply to someone living under some oppressive totalitarian regime. Are we really supposed to take these words at face value in our own context of 21st Century rural Virginia? After all, we have constitutional freedoms that didn’t exist back then.
When Rocks Baptist was founded in 1772, Peter’s words had lots of meaning. Our forefathers had to stand against the colonial authorities to profess their faith in Christ Jesus apart from the state church. At the side of the stagecoach road to Richmond, they set up church in defiance of certain laws, ready to pay the price for living according to their faith. They yearned for a reversal was still years in coming. In the meantime, they accepted Peter’s words as meaningful. They expressed their faith, hope, and assurance in God’s care, even in light of suffering and oppression.
Perhaps they better understood Jesus’ words than we. As Baptists of the period worked for freedom, they sought a freedom that would benefit all. They did not look for blessings and privilege for themselves alone. They recognized that the gospel’s turning of tables was different from that Messianic expectation. Rather than dream of liberty for their personal use, they sought liberty for all.
They recognized in Jesus’ words that the blessings of this life are not to be spent upon our own personal comfort. Rather, the gospel demands we give our very lives to serve others. If that road becomes uncomfortable for us, we travel on, knowing that the blessings of this world are only of a temporary nature. God has much greater blessings in store. Will we allow the gospel to turn the tables on how we see the world around us? Otherwise, we ignore the message of the one we call Lord. Will we trust the Jesus of the Beatitudes, or will we refuse to allow His words to impact our lives. The gospel makes a radical difference when we allow God to interfere with our lives and drive for comfort.
—©Copyright 2006 Christopher B. Harbin